


Cat and Mouse

by Yoselin



Category: Villainous Nights (Visual Novel)
Genre: AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 06:07:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14868149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoselin/pseuds/Yoselin
Summary: This is an AU where MC is the daughter of the Optimus CEO and married to Duke.





	Cat and Mouse

ChatSphere is truly a beautiful office space. Its walls invite warmth and friendliness, its colors project a home-y and lively atmosphere, and its openness conveys honesty and candor. Were I not born to the CEO of Optimus, I would have easily applied here for a job.   
My heels click against the tiled floor as I approach the front desk. I hardly need to check in, my name is well known among ChatSphere employees, yet I find it is better to announce myself anyway.   
Miguel, Duke’s assistant, is at his desk. He flips through folders and files as I approach then puts them down when he recognizes me. A polite smile is offered my way, a courtesy owed to my title, and he taps on a button on his desk to alert Duke. I lean on the counter and sign the visitor’s ledger.   
“Good morning,” I greet. I hand the ledger over to Miguel who prints out a visitor’s pass and hands it to me.   
“Morning, Mrs. Vale, he’s ready,” Miguel greets in turn. He nods at the office behind him where I can hear Duke typing.   
I straighten and hum a thank you to him before heading for the office. The door is open just slightly and I slip in without second thoughts.   
My husband, the illustrious Duke Vale who created an Empire from scratch, hangs up his cell phone as I enter. He stands from his seat and greets me midway.   
“Val,” he breathes out. His arms come around my waist and he brushes his lips past mine.   
I lean forward in his embrace and put my own arms around his neck. “You forgot your lunch today.”  
Duke gives me a questioning look. “You didn’t bring me lunch.”  
“Looks like I forgot it too,” I admit. I shrug and move away from his embrace to take the chair by his desk. He resumes his own seat.   
I have a few seconds to glance at his computer screen before he flicks it off to focus on me. There are some spreadsheets open revealing ChatSphere’s growing user count, and an email screen depicting mail from various clients. I try to see if there is anything to note, but the screen turns dark before I can.   
My fingers twirl my cellphone around in frustration.   
“I just swung by to tell you that my father wants to arrange a business meeting with you over the proposal Sampson sent you last month. I would have passed on the message to Miguel but I figured it’d be best to say it in person. Optimus is interested in purchasing ChatSphere,” I cross my fingers on my lap.   
Duke nods his head once and turns back to his laptop screen. His face takes on that of a businessman once more and my husband is gone. He pulls out his phone and types away at something.   
“I’ll arrange a meeting with your father if it is necessary but my answer remains the same. I have no interest in selling my company. I’d rather not rely on Optimus’ dime.”  
I push a strand of my hair back. “He could find you a position at Optimus. You could work for the company and help oversee the communication branch. People with superpowers need to be reached out to, you know.”  
Duke sets his phone down on his desk and shakes his head. His face assumes a look of disgust at the mention of Optimus before he reels his emotions in.   
“I’d rather not rely on Optimus’ dime,” he repeats. He leans back in his chair, “Is that it?”   
“One more thing. I wanted to tell you that I am staying late at Optimus today. There’s a big meeting after the workday is over. I’ll have my secretary call and arrange dinner. I’ll see you when I get back, alright?”  
I stand from my seat and grab the cell from the desk. I manage to slip it into my pocket before Duke comes around and wraps an arm around me in a farewell. He brushes his lips past my cheek and opens his office door.   
“This could have been done through the phone, dear,” he murmurs.   
I smile and kiss him lightly. “I wanted to see my husband. Is that so wrong?”  
He shakes his head, whispers an ‘I love you’, and sees me out of his office.   
I nod past Miguel and walk into the elevator. Once there, I pull out the real reason I went to his office.   
While he was distracted, I managed to swipe his cellphone. 

Optimus security greets me as I enter the meeting room. The workday is over and they are the only ones allowed into the wing where the executive meeting is taking place. I nod at them and enter the business meeting.  
There are five people sitting in a semi circle around a business table. Hayden, Charles, Sunny, Sampson, and my father. They’re mid conversation when I enter. I take in their rigid postures and hushed whispers bordering on anger.   
“Let me guess, the Vigilante group struck again?” I cast my jacket on a nearby chair and slip into the seat opposite of my father.   
The five glance at me and cease their conversation. My father slides me a folder with security camera images. I recognize the same Vigilante group from before in the grainy security cam footage. They’re mid-battle and displaying their powers for the world to see.   
Sampson flicks through his own copy of the photos. “They blew out our security Beta team and nearly stole priceless information. The Cat managed to make it to the storage room and swiped a few documents detailing security movements and employee cards. I’ve spoken to the storage room keepers and they can pinpoint what information was taken. We can do damage control from that but it’ll take a few days to adjust security protocol. We’re down several men.”  
I flip past the pages of photos. The Vigilante group is all there. There’s the Badger, the Cat, the Falcon, and the Wolf. I stare at the last photograph longer than necessary then close the file.   
“Well, are we at least any closer to discovering their identities?” I move for my tablet screen.   
“They’re clever. They remain masked at all times, they don’t use their real names, their powers aren’t registered into our database, and they leave no trail. The one of them we do know is a miracle,” Sunny replies back.   
I make a sound at the back of my throat and switch the topic. I bring up an image of ChatSphere’s logo on the tablet.   
“Well Duke rejected my proposal again. He’s not giving up on ChatSphere and he’s not selling. Maybe ChatSphere is a bust after all and we should divert our attention. SnapShot is still on the table,” I reason out.   
My father snorts. “SnapShot is asking for five times what we are offering Vale. If we buy that company, we get a higher stake in power at the price of a huge dent in our banks. We need ChatSphere. Keep pushing him for it, there’s a reason why I married you off to him.”  
I make a sound at the back of my throat and pull out Duke’s cellphone.   
“You never let me forget, Dad. Anyway, I took Duke’s phone earlier during our conversation. He doesn’t have a password so I got in easily but there’s nothing to note. His contacts are all clients or me, his photos are of me, and his apps are pretty basic. The one thing that is interesting is his ChatSphere app. He has the standard conversation list, one for me, one for his assistant, and one for a few clients, but there’s an odd one in the mix. It’s pretty hidden and encrypted. I tried to get in but he has some type of code lock in place. Can you get in?”  
I slide the phone towards Hayden. He flicks on the screen and taps away at the phone. After a few tense minutes, he slides it back with a scowl.   
“It’s heavily encrypted and trying to get in won’t help. You’ll need a fingerprint scan to unlock it. I’d try and bust in but that might alert the users of an info breach. The other Vigilante is clever with technology.”   
I pocket the phone. “Oh well, I guess I’ll have to wait until he falls asleep then like any other wife looking to snoop. Meanwhile, I’ll try to see if I can follow Duke on his next Syndicate meeting but he’s clever and avoids even our most trained spies.”  
I stand from my seat and grab my tablet. Everyone else rises with me. Our meeting today is largely unproductive and everyone is tense. The Syndicate has been growing closer to gathering information, and we haven’t gotten any closer to figuring out who they are.   
We know Duke is with them, it’s the reason why my father approved of the marriage, but I’ve been unable to learn more.   
In a way, it’s heartbreaking that our entire relationship is based on one lie. Duke got close to me for information on Optimus, and I got close to him in order to convince him to sell ChatSphere. We’ve both failed at our attempts although we continue to spy. Often times I ‘accidentally’ take his stuff to find intel, and often times he ‘accidentally’ gets lost at Optimus looking for my office. It’s become a dance of sorts, a game of cat and mouse, problem is I can’t tell which one of us is which.   
As the others file out, I turn to my father. My father, the CEO of Optimus, puts his hand on my back.   
“Easy, Val, you’ll get through to him. He might hate Optimus with all his heart, but he loves you with all of it too. I wouldn’t have agreed to a marriage if it weren’t the case,” he soothes.   
I bite my lip and pull at a loose strand on my sweater. “That’s not true. You were angling for us to marry the moment you found out the owner of ChatSphere was a young bachelor. You pushed us together a number of times and knew he was spying on me before I did.”  
My father tilts his head down in acceptance and pats my back reassuringly. I cross my arms.   
“I remember my wedding day, you know. I found out he was spying on me and this company when my assistant called to tell me about a Trojan she had found on my work computer. Someone had planted that virus in there to gather intel, and only Duke had, had access to it in the months leading up to the wedding. I almost confronted him then, heartbroken and ready to scream at him in front of the entire service, but you told me to bite my tongue. You said that I could use him too. I could love him while loving Optimus.”  
My father shrugs. “And do you regret that?”  
I grab my coat and shake my head.   
“No. I love him and I love Optimus too.”

When I get home, my study lights are on and the door is ajar. I figure Duke decided to take advantage of my absence to snoop through my laptop. I chuckle to myself and retrieve his cellphone from my bag. If he’s looking for Optimus information, he won’t find it in my home computer.   
I open the door of the study and poke my head in. My heels have alerted him to my approach, so Duke has managed to turn off my laptop and move to my bookcase instead. He feigns looking through old novels for something.   
“Looking for something, love?”   
Duke pulls a random book off the shelf and holds it up. “Just your copy of ‘Great Expectations’. How was the meeting?”   
He tries to make his voice sound nonchalant but I can tell he’s interested in the answer. Most husbands ask about work as a formality, but Duke actually cares. Whatever information I feed him gets sent back to the Syndicate, so I make sure to feed him as little of importance as possible.   
My arms wrap around him and I groan. “Something about a new development in the Philippines. My father can talk on and on and on if you get him started on humanitarian work. He’s deploying some sort of team to help the situation there, but I stopped listening after the first ten minutes. How was your day?”  
Duke registers the lie, catalogs it in his head to take to the Syndicate later, then slips the book under his arm.   
“I lost my phone earlier. Did you accidentally take it?” He gives me an odd look.   
I plaster a smile I hope looks innocent and hand him the cellphone.   
“Guilty. Our phones are identical so I got them mixed up. I called Miguel to let him know and meant to give it back but the office kept me busy all day. Sorry,” I kiss the corner of his mouth.   
The tenseness of his posture evaporates and Duke slips the phone into his pocket. “Accidents happen. Why don’t we leave work behind and go to bed? I’ve had a long day.”  
“Yeah, I’ll head there in a bit. Let me just email the Optimus branch in Prague and then I’ll make it up to you for taking your phone.”  
I wink at him and he flushes. The smirk that I love so much paints his features and he leaves my office. Once he’s gone and his footsteps no longer sound, I power on my laptop.   
My work email is open and someone has read over some messages between myself and my Optimus employees. I almost dial my father in a panic before I realize the account Duke unknowingly logged into. Rather than my work account, he’s read over my dummy profile. Fake news bulletins and red herrings fill the window. I breathe a sigh of relief and power my laptop off.   
He hasn’t found anything of use yet. 

It is one in the morning when Duke slips out of the house. He tries to do it silently so that I may not realize, but my cell beeps with a notification about the security camera detecting movement. I wait until he has a chance to leave the premise before dialing my father.   
“He just left for the Syndicate. I told him about the Philippines lie and I think he bought it. They’ll probably stage some rescue mission for the volunteers we’re dispatching. Are the security teams in place?”  
“They lost track of him a long time ago. Several of my men were taken down by ice shards. He has a habit of slipping past security, Val,” my father’s tired voice sounds out.   
I laugh and shake my head.   
“Glad he’s not having an affair, otherwise I’d never catch him. I thought he was cheating, you know, when we first started dating. Of course, then I found out about his powers and realized he was just trying to hide his Vigilante group from me. Sometimes I wonder if I would have preferred him cheating,” I admit.   
“Look on the bright side, you’re both using each other and love has still managed to grow between the two of you. I do like him, Val, he’s a good son-in-law. He’s misguided and a real pain in the ass to Optimus, but he’s a valuable asset.”  
I hum and get back into bed. “Yeah, I like him too. Keep an eye on the Optimus cams and make sure they don’t plan their little mission for tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”  
I click off the phone and toss it on the nightstand. Grinding my teeth in worry, I say a quick prayer for both Duke and Optimus. I pray my husband won’t get injured, and I pray my company won’t be hurt. 

Sometimes I’m grateful that Duke is predictable. His email password is just a combination of our birthdays. I get in on my second try and skim over his information.  
There’s admittedly not much to account for, some emails about ChatSphere and investments, but I do manage to find one message tucked away. It’s a bank statement to an architect dating back years. Duke paid them a hefty sum for some apartment renovations, renovations that don’t add up to the bachelor pad he was living in when we met.   
I try to dig some more but the info ends there. I only get a name, Lorelei Linden, before my trail ends. Scribbling it on a sticky, I decide to go back to that lead later before someone sends me a message.   
It’s Sunny.   
I log out of Duke’s email and open up a spreadsheet for cover then leave my office.   
When I round the corner, I see Sunny and Duke walking up the stairs. Duke gives me a smile when he sees me but Sunny’s mouth is pinched at the corners in a frown.   
“You didn’t tell me you were visiting,” I greet. I lean against my office door.   
“I thought I’d return the favor from yesterday. Your father wanted to meet with me in person,” Duke replies.   
I nod and glance at Sunny. The tenseness of her shoulders gives away her disagreement. I catch the implication in her stance.   
“Let me guess, someone got lost again looking for my office?” I tease.   
Duke rubs the back of his neck and Sunny’s mouth presses into a thinner line.  
“Optimus is a large company,” Duke defends.   
I laugh and open my office door behind me. “Alright, alright, get in and take a seat. I’ll be there in a moment,” I shrug. Duke slips past me into my office and I move towards Sunny.   
Dropping my voice to a low whisper, I cross my arms.   
“How far did he make it this time?”  
“Far,” Sunny grinds out, “he almost found the lab. Keep a tighter leash on your Wolf, Val.”   
With that final warning, she spins around and marches off. I pinch the bridge of my nose, take a second to reel in my frustration, then go into my office. 

Duke is fiddling with the paperweight on my desk when I enter. He adjusts his posture and moves to kiss me. I let him.   
“Any luck my father convinced you to sell ChatSphere?” I ask after a pause. I take the seat next to him.   
“His offer is generous but I want to keep my company for a while longer. I have no interest in selling it or a share of it any time soon,” he replies.   
I take his hand. “Darn and I was looking forward to finding you a job here. Anyway, what brought you here today? I thought you had a meeting.”  
Duke glances at his watch.   
“Miguel moved them down later in the afternoon. I wanted to see if you wanted to get lunch together? It’s been a while since we had a date.”  
I warm at the thought and nod. “Yeah, definitely, I’d love that. Let me message my assistant to cancel my meeting and I’ll meet you downstairs. Remember parking is on the second floor this time, Duke, not the basement.”  
I give him a playful warning although I can still remember the headache his little spying cost last time. Duke had managed to find the basement and almost made it to some secret wings Optimus wanted hidden before security had found him. He had spun a lie about the elevator bringing him down, and I had been ordered to keep an eye on him by my father.   
Duke nods, brushes a kiss to my cheek, and leaves the office.   
As he goes, I check the paperweight he was messing with. As predicted, there’s a recording device tucked inside. 

I motion towards the paperweight and press my finger to my lips. My father rolls his eyes and mouths ‘of course’ before sitting opposite of me.   
We launch into our rehearsed script and raise our voices more than necessary.   
“The Philippines project is coming along nicely. Our 10 volunteers will be leaving tonight for the airport and will arrive tomorrow. The Philippines branch is set and ready to go. I emailed the overseer,” I cross my arms.   
“Nice work, Val, the volunteers just confirmed with me their status. There’ll be an Optimus van ready to take them soon. The Head of Security will get things ready. As soon as the workday is over, Project Philippines is a go,” my father stands.   
We both eye the paperweight, make sure it has captured our words, then nod at the clock. One hour ‘till closing.   
I shrug and leave my office. My dad follows behind me typing at the Security team to stand ready. 

The sound of a fight reaches us hours later. We stand leaning against the stairs and listen to the sounds of the Syndicate smashing through security. My dad watches the feed of the fight live on his tablet before it turns to snow.   
“Someone disabled the cameras and took down the servers,” my dad mumbles.   
“Must be the Syndicate member that works with tech,” I shrug.   
We listen to the sound of combat below. An earthquake trembles the ground and I hold on to the railing.   
“They’re powerful, you know, Optimus could use them. Once we find their identities, we could find a place for them,” I bite my lip, “Security knows not to attack Duke, right?”  
My father waves his hand in reassurance. “A few scratches but he’ll live. The false Philippine volunteers were freed so they’re trying to exit the building. Hopefully we’ll catch one of the others tonight.”  
I lean against the railing where the zapping of batons can be heard floors below.   
“My wedding was the affair of the century, you know. The ChatSphere CEO and the future Optimus CEO marrying? Every tabloid had a scoop before the ink on the papers had even dried. It was the American version of the Royal Wedding. I wonder sometimes what would have happened if life had been different. What if I hadn’t been an Optimus Princess? What if I had just been some intern that turned Syndicate. Would it have made marrying him easier?” I twirl the wedding ring on my finger nervously.   
My father chuckles. “Every marriage has its fair share of secrets, Val.”  
“Not every marriage has corporate espionage and listening devices in offices,” I mumble out.   
I rest my head on my hand and listen as the sound of the battle grows fainter. Either the Syndicate is winning, or security has finally apprehended them. My money is on the former.   
“Do you regret any of it? You cried on your wedding day but were smiling during the reception.”  
“I cried because I felt guilty I was marrying him for information. I smiled because his vows seemed sincere,” I take a deep breath, “No, I don’t regret it. Like you said, it is possible to do both. It’s possible to love Duke and love Optimus at the same time.”  
My father nods, pats my hand reassuringly, and nods at the silent building. “Fight is over.”  
I straighten and make my descent down the stairs. “Yeah, yeah, I know the drill. You assess the damage to Optimus with Sampson and I’ll go home and make sure my husband has all his limbs intact.”  
My father mumbles his goodbyes and we go our opposite way. He goes the way that leads him to Optimus and I go the way that leads me to Duke.  
I text Duke a message letting him know my yoga class is over and I’m coming home.   
His reply takes a moment. He sends a confirmation with an ‘I love you’ attached. I message it back and slip my phone into my pocket with a chagrined smile.   
It is difficult, this game of cat and mouse, but I can control it. After all, it is possible to love both Duke and Optimus at the same time.


End file.
